Award-winning photojournalist Kevin Frayer has witnessed war and world-changing events. But it’s out on the fringes of society that he really found his voice. Here, he shares his hard-won advice for young photographers chasing authentic stories beyond the beaten track.

Kevin Frayer

Kevin Frayer had to reach the roof of the world to understand what was driving him. An award-winning Canadian photojournalist, Frayer cut his teeth working for his hometown newspaper, The Winnipeg Sun, before graduating to The Associated Press in 2003 where he covered high-stakes stories across India and the Middle East. In 2013, he left the AP to pursue personal work and now freelances for Getty from his base in Beijing, where he lives with his wife Janis, young son Jetsun, a dog called Uma and three refugee cats.

Kevin Frayer

The stories he covers dig below the surface of the China we think we know; a country so gigantic in size and scale that its full complexity seems to baffle our minds. Pushing past stereotypes and the straight lines of preconceptions, Frayer finds himself journeying off track to seek out jagged stories that exist on the fringes; from Tibetan nomads whose way of life is being threatened by climate change, rapid modernisation and forced resettlement, to the Kazakh eagle hunters of far-western Xinjiang. (Text by Andrea Kurland)

Huck celebrates independent culture – people and movements that paddle against the flow. Inspired by DIY principles and rooted in the rebellious heritage of surf and skate, Huck roams the globe to document grassroots counterculture as it unfolds, seeking out freethinkers who are a wellspring of new thoughts and ideas.

Kevin Frayer is an award -winning photojournalist based in Asia. Frayer is formerly a National photographer at the Canadian Press and a Chief Photographer for the Associated Press based in the Gaza Strip, Jerusalem, and New Delhi, India and is currently working with Getty Images. His photographs have been widely published in leading newspapers, magazines and internet sites around the world. He now resides in Beijing with his wife Janis, his son Jetsun, his dog Uma, and three refugee cats.

While researching the football scene in Kolkata, photographer Balarka Brahma came across a residential home set up by Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee (DMSC) for children of sex workers from various brothels at Baruipur, a small town near Kolkata. Slowly gathering information and details from its location to the mode of functioning, Brahma finally got a chance to meet Mr. Smarajit Jana, the head of the academy, and embarked on a visual documentation of the children’s lives at the residential home.

Balarka Brahma

A unique cooperative of close to 65,000 sex workers–male, female and transgender–DMSC was established in 1992 in Sonagachi, the region’s largest red-light district. Rallying for the rights of brothel workers, the team felt the need to do more for their children who often get trapped in the trade of their mothers, or when they are denied education they’re driven into the nefarious trade of sex work and drugs. DMSC’s innovative approach to providing new opportunities to these children involve separating them from their mothers, a necessary evil for many, and providing them with a safe home, schooling and an in into mainstream society through football.

Balarka Brahma

“Sports have helped in great extent to integrate them in societies. As everyone knows that Bengal is the land of football; it was the obvious choice to them to select football for this purpose,” Brahma told us. “Running a home only for residential and educational purposes do not help much in long run, and they realized it. At least they needed something which can attract and motivate the kids to stay away from their mothers. The football team is a mixture of both kids from the brothel areas and beyond.” (Words: Sara Hussain)

Balarka is an independent documentary photographer from India. He mainly works with NGOs for their works in various sectors like education, health and mental care along with his personal projects. His works have been published in different magazines like Galli, Better Photography, Invisible Photographer Asia, Private and many more. (source: lensculture)

Lin Zhipeng 林志鹏 is born in Guangdong province and graduated from Guangdong University of Foreign Studies with major of financial English. Based now in Beijing, he named himself “No.223” after the lovelorn cop character in Wong Kar-wai’s movie Chungking Express. Lin snaps his circle of friends and himself, portraying his view of youth culture and lifestyles in contemporary China. His photographs are marked by fashionable indolence, saturated colours, penetrating flash, and somewhat frontal shots that unveil his models’ empowering presence and vulnerability at the same time.

Welcome to ChinaFile’s inaugural “Depth of Field” column. In collaboration with Yuanjin Photo, an independent photo blog published by photographers Yan Cong and Ye Ming on the Chinese social media platform WeChat, we will highlight new and newsworthy photojournalism published in Chinese media by Chinese photographers. For each column, Yan, Ye, and ChinaFile’s David M. Barreda choose one image from each featured body of work, describe the project, and provide a link to the original piece. Our opening column features stories from Beijing to Zimbabwe, on subjects from teens dropping out of the education system to adults seeking sex ed. (by Yan Cong, Ye Ming, David M. Barreda)